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Use Social Media To Elevate Your Dental Patient Base

Use Social Media To Elevate Your Dental Patient Base
by Naren Arulrajah

If you have been playing hide and seek with your social media marketing, like most dental practices, then you need to shift gears quickly. Social media is no longer just a popular entertainment digital platform. Social sites are increasingly becoming the “go-to place” for patients to find new dentists. So if you want to give practice discovery and patient engagement a new spin, then getting ahead in the social game should be your big focus.

Quality Health Content

There is always going to be demand for high-quality content related to oral health and wellness. Patients actively look for and gravitate toward sources that deliver fresh and highly relevant content. However, quality content also needs a delivery system that supports faster discovery and easy consumption. This is where social media comes in.

Digital patients spend a lot of time on social sites looking for healthcare information, including information about your practice. If you can provide regular content that is relevant to their needs, then it becomes easier to engage with your social audience.

Know Your Audience

Get to know your audience. Start by auditing your website and social media analytics and then audit your competitors and their social media accounts. Look for information on audience behavior, how they interact with your digital assets, where they spend a lot of time, and what kind of activity they indulge in while they are on your site and social pages.

Go through your research to gain an overview of what your audience is looking for from your dental practice and which social platforms they’re active on. Once you have this information, you can then start creating content that is geared toward meeting the expectations of your social audience.

Streamline Content Distribution

There are 5 steps in implementing your new social media strategy:

1. Select social networks that your target audience prefers.
2. Start by using only one or 2 social platforms and go all out to achieve success on those networks—publish content, start conversations, invite comments, ask for information on what your readers want, share content, etc.
3. Replicate the success of your primary social channels on other social platforms that also speak to your target customer.
4. Select the right social media tools that will ease the process of social media scheduling, social listening, and tracking of metrics.
5. Instead of only depending on organic distribution alone, consider paid social media to expand your message reach.
   

Mix Up Your Content

The most effective way to keep audiences engaged is to use a variety of formats in creating social dental content. So in addition to articles, you can use quizzes, surveys, games, fun campaigns, and visual material such as videos, infographics, and LinkedIn SlideShares to increase your content reach and share potential.

With graphics tools like Stencil and Canva, creating visual content is fairly easy. If you have the budget, however, then by all means, find yourself a designer who specializes in social content. Videos, infographics, and SlideShare can up the ante on patient interactions.

Read full article on Dentistry Today.